…And no, I’m not talking about an out-of-body experience.

We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.
~ Ronald Reagan, 40^th President of The United States, 1911 – 2004

On day 3 of The Kind Year, I found myself in a very nice public restroom. Not your average, run-of-the-mill, “should be afraid to go in it” public restroom, but one where they take pride in the cleanliness and upkeep in their restroom. In fact, there was a lady wiping down the sinks when I went in.

Between the time I entered the restroom and the time I went to the sink to wash my hands, I could tell that she had started at one end of the counter of 5 or 6 sinks and had worked her way down to the other end. The sink I used was one she had already wiped. When I reached for the paper towel, I dripped water from my freshly-washed hands onto the counter top. So when I was done drying my hands, I used the paper towel to wipe up the drips I had just left before I threw it away. The lady watched me (because she was already anticipating the need to go re-wipe my sink) and looked a little surprised by my actions. I just smiled at her, tossed my towel in the trash and left.

I have never seen this nametag. Have you?

I know it’s her job to keep the restroom clean and nice, but that doesn’t mean I can’t clean up after myself just because I don’t get paid to do it. Her nametag didn’t say “Somebody Else” (in fact, it said “Janet”), so I didn’t think it should be left for “Somebody Else” to do just because I knew “Somebody Else” would. I made the mess.  It wasn’t difficult or time consuming to clean up, it didn’t require any special tools or skills, and there was no reason for me to feel I should be compensated for it, so I cleaned it up.  It was just one less time she had to wipe down that sink on that day.

Too often, we leave things for “Somebody Else” to do because we are too tired, or too busy, or too disinterested, or too whatever to do it ourselves. “Somebody Else” always seems to have a lot to do:

“Somebody Else” will volunteer to help with the activity.
“Somebody Else” will make a donation.
“Somebody Else” will recycle.
“Somebody Else” will clean it up.
“Somebody Else” will fix it.
“Somebody Else” will finish it.
It’s “Somebody Else’s” job to do it.

But why leave it for “Somebody Else?” And what happens when “Nobody Else” does it?

Tags: kindness, name tags, public restroom, someone else

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 at 7:01 pm and is filed under Giving of oneself. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.